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Food Bill: Is a central food scheme necessary?

-The Business Standard


TN, Chattisgarh already successful; Karnataka,MP,Odisha have announced schemes

Food security today became a law. President Pranab Mukherjee gave his consent to the ordinance today morning. The Cabinet had already cleared the ordinance on Wednesday.

With this, almost 800 million of India's 1.2 billion population may now be entitled to 5 kgs of foodgrain each a month at subsidized rates. Subsidized rates are--Rs 3 a kg for rice, Rs 2 a kg for wheat and Rs 1 a kg for coarse grains.

The food subsidy will swell to Rs 1,24,724 crore in a year at 2013-14 costs. The Budget had pegged food subsidy at Rs 90,000 crore for 2013-14.

But one big question is whether such a scheme is necessary when several states are already running successful schemes.

While Chattisgarh has been the trendsetter with the enactment of the food security bill 2012 that covers 90% of the population, Tamil Nadu has reported similar success with its universal PDS. Other states like Madhya Pradesh has already announced the availability of wheat at Rs 1/kg and rice at Rs 2/kg to poor families from June 1. While Andhra Pradesh also offers rice at subsidised rates, Odisha has also announced a similar plan.